what should be done when the tea came in; and the lawless defiance of the colonists in that matter brought the ministers in England to such a temper that there were presently new and very exciting subjects of correspondence between the committees, and affairs ran fast towards a crisis. [Illustration: LORD NORTH] Teas to the value of no less than eighteen thousand pounds sterling had been thrown into the harbor at Boston on that memorable night of the 16th of December, 1773, when “Captain Mackintosh,” the redoubtable leader of the South End toughs of the lively little town, was permitted for the nonce to lead his betters; but what aroused the ministers and put Parliament in a heat was not so much the loss incurred by the East India Company or the outcry of the merchants involved as the startling significance of the act, and the unpleasant evidence which every day came to hand that all the colonies alike were ready to resist. After the tea had been sent away, or stored safe against sale or present use, or thrown into the harbor, at Philadelphia, Charleston, New York, and Boston, as the leaders of the mobs or the meetings at each place preferred, there was an instant spread of Virginia’s method of union. Six more colonies hastened to appoint committees of correspondence, and put themselves in direct communication with the men at Boston and at Williamsburg who were forming opinion and planning modes of redress. Only Pennsylvania held off. The tea had been shut out at Philadelphia, as elsewhere, but the leaders of the colony were not ready yet to follow so fast in the paths of agitation and resistance. Members of Parliament hardly noticed the exception. It was Boston they thought of and chiefly condemned as a hot-bed of lawlessness. Not every one, it is true, was ready to speak quite so plainly or so intemperately as Mr. Venn. “The town of Boston ought to be knocked about their ears and destroyed,” he said. “You will never meet with proper obedience to the laws of this country until you have destroyed that nest of locusts.” But, though few were so outspoken, no doubt many found such a view very much to their taste, excellently suited to their temper. [Illustration: TITLE-PAGE OF HUTCHINSON’S HISTORY]